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Corythosaurus
Corythosaurus was a 30 foot long hadrosaurine dinosaur. Facts Corythosaurus traveled in herds, and was one of the favorite prey for animals like tyrannosaurs, Tyrannosaurus Rex.Its name means helmet lizard. It could breath through its helmet/crest. It was one of the animals that used Herding and Escape for its defence. The crest on its head was made of solid bone. It lived during the late Cretaceous period. Full definition Corythosaurus /ˌkɒrɨθɵˈsɔrəs/: is a genus of duck-billed dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous Period, about 76.5-74.8 million years ago. It lived in what is now North America. Its name means "helmet lizard", derived from Greek. It was named and described in 1914 by Barnum Brown, and classified as a trachodontid. Corythosaurus has an estimated length of 9 metres (30 ft), and has a skull, including the crest, that is 70.8 centimetres (27.9 in.) tall. It is known from many complete specimens, including a nearly complete holotype found by Brown in 1912. The holotype skeleton is only missing the last section of the tail, and part of the forelimbs, but was preserved with impressions of polygonal scales. The specimen was found among marine sediments, and around it were preserved elements of the bivalve Unio, and an indeterminate turtle. The preserved sections of the forelimbs include the scapulae, coracoids, humeri, ulnae, radii and phalanges. In 1917, two greatly-preserved specimens of Corythosaurus were being shipped to Arthur Smith Woodward in England. They were sent to the bottom of the ocean when their carrier was sunk. million years ago. It lived in what is now North America. Its name means "helmet lizard", derived from Greek. It was named and described in 1914 by Barnum Brown, and classified as a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trachodontidae trachodontid. Corythosaurus has an estimated length of 9 metres (30 ft), and has a skull, including the crest, that is 70.8 centimetres (27.9 in) tall.] It is known from many complete specimens, including a nearly complete holotype found by Brown in 1912. The holotype skeleton is only missing the last section of the tail, and part of the forelimbs, but was preserved with impressions of polygonal scales. The specimen was found among marine sediments, and around it were preserved elements of the bivalve Unio, and an indeterminate turtle. The preserved sections of the forelimbs include the scapulae, coracoids, humeri, ulnae, radii, and phalanges. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalange In 1917, two greatly-preserved specimens of Corythosaurus were being shipped to ]Arthur Smith Woodward in England. They were sent to the bottom of the ocean when their carrier was sunk. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England Many species of Corythosaurus were known before 1975, but in that year, ][http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Dodson Peter Dodson studied and described many gender-related crest traits. These traits showed that the many species which were distinguished by crest shape and size were likely synonyms. Dodson found that all the species were the same, but now C. intermedius is recognized as valid. Corythosaurus is now thought to be a ]lambeosaurine, related to Nipponosaurus, Velafrons, Hypacrosaurus, and Olorotitan. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olorotitan Corythosaurus is known from many skulls with tall crests. The crests resemble the crests of the ]cassowary and a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corinthian_helmet Corinthian helmet. Originally, the crests were thought to be used as a snorkel, to breathe through when swimming. The problem with that was that there were no holes in the top of the crest to allow air through. Later, they were thought to be air reserves, to breathe when underwater. A problem with that theory was that underwater, unless the animal had some way of pressurizing the air, the lungs would not be able to expand. Currently, the most likely scenario is that the crest was used for vocalization. Like a trombone, the air would travel through many chambers in the crest, and then get amplified when Corythosaurus exhaled. It was thought to be aquatic, based on the misidentification of foot padding, that was thought to be webbing.] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corinthian_helmet Corythosaurus is known from juveniles and adults. Therefore, it is known when it started developing its crests. Its crests started developing when half the size of adults, but Parasaurolophus juveniles grew crests when only 25% as long as adults. The age in which individuals developed crests might influence why Parasaurolophus has such a large crest compared with other lambeosaurines.] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corinthian_helmet Corythosaurus has been preserved with skin impressions. The impressions are of polygonal tuberculate scales, and they vary in size over different sections of the body. Other impressions are of conical limpet-like scales that are only preserved on a fold of skin on the back of the tibia. The skin preserved on the tibia was probably from the bottom of the belly, instead of on the leg, so leg scalation is not well known among hadrosaurids. Separating the polygonal scales of C. casuarius are shield feature-scales, which are arranged close together in rows.] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corinthian_helmet Based on the climate of the Late Cretaceous, Benson et al. (2010) guessed that Corythosaurus would have been a selective feeder, eating only the juiciest fruits and youngest leaves. Corythosaurus specimens have been preserved with its last meal in its chest cavity. Inside the cavity were remains of ]conifer needles, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seeds seeds, twigs, and fruits, meaning that Corythosaurus probably fed on all of these.] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seeds Corythosaurus is well-known from two formations of Alberta, the ]Oldman and Dinosaur Park formations. In the Dinosaur Park Formation, along with the Judith River, and Mesaverde formations, and also the Wind River Basin and the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheatland_County,_Alberta Wheatland County areas, Corythosaurus was found associated with ]Centrosaurus[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centrosaurus . Many taxa were found alongside Corythosaurus is the formations, and the only two large predators found in the same area as Corythosaurus were ]Gorgosaurus ''and Daspletosaurus''. In Other Media In books Corythosaurus has appeared in many different books and is one of the more famous hadrosaurs, ( the other being Parasaurolophus). Category:Hadrosaur Category:Duckbill Category:Bipedal Category:Reptiles Category:Herbivore Category:Animal Category:Dinosaur Category:Non-avian dinosaurs Category:Diapsid Category:Orinthosuchian Category:Cretaceous dinosaur Category:Food Category:Killer Category:Article stubs